HMS Victory and Le Redoutable at Trafalgar (1/300)

[Aphres]

You holy humanoid CNC.......

[Pieter]

...takes notes again, and again, and again....very nice work.

[dhenning]

And they are only 3mm in diameter....simply amazing! Looking forward to more updates!

Dave

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks everyone!

You holy humanoid CNC.......

I haven't had that compliment yet... I like it!

[Martocticvs]

Fantastic work. 3mm is nuts.

[Nanond]

Fantastic job! Your attention to details is amazing. Love the damaged, cannon-holed mast.

Nanond

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks Martocticvs and Nanond!
And happy newyear to everyone!

I had started the bowsprit together with the other masts, and now it is finished.

Again, I started from 3mm brass rod. I also tapered it with the Dremel, but this time quite a bit more:


First, I added the gammoning fish. I decided not to model the part that will be hidden under the gammoning, but only the parts alongside.
I could have heat-formed plastic sheet to take the curve of the mast, but I chose the quick and easy method of glue and force:


The results are of course rather messy:


But these were deliberately kept oversized, so I could now cut and sand them down to the correct dimensions:




Next, the iron bands followed. The one below the gammoning fish quickly broke when test-fitting on the hull, so I left it off and this is the only image in which you will ever see it. It would be near invisible on the finished model anyway�


Now, the cap was added. This was mostly shaped before attaching it to the bowsprit, but the hole for the jibboom was drilled afterwards (to get the angle correct).


Now, the bees, bee blocks, (edge of the) spritsail sling saddle and cleats were fitted. The cleats were glued on as tiny triangles, and afterwards filed to their final shape.
The ones at the top needed to be flattened a bit too much, as I had left about 0,1mm of space too little between bowsprit and jibboom�


Any gaps, or areas that need �squaring�, around the bees were filled with Magic Sculp:


Now, copper wire (2 pieces of 0,1mm twisted together) was glued in place. This will represent the parts wrapped around the mast of the forestay collar, bobstays and sprit shrouds.


The foremost double wire would be part of the spritsail sling, but after adding it I figured it would be helpful to attach the yard with the sling in one piece, a bit like the real thing, so I removed it again.

The jibboom was also turned with the Dremel. The notch at its end was added with a halfround needle file (using the flat side):


This was fed through the hole in the cap and glued in place. Its rear end received a lashing with 0,05mm tinned copper wire.


The dolphin striker was turned in the same way, glued to the front of the cap, and received some �iron� bands:


And finished!


Remember, that last photo is still about 3 times actual size!

I will still add remains of the flying jibboom, but that will only happen after painting and during rigging, as it will be hanging quite loose from the jibboom. The (damaged) spritsail yard will also be added at that time.

[Martocticvs]

How are you going to handle the various stays that pass through the dolphin striker?

[marijn van gils]

I will simply glue them to it in two parts. If physically possible, I will butt-glue them to the fore and aft sides to give the impression that they pass through.

The thicker end of the dolphin striker is only about 0,6mm diameter. So drilling the thinner end (of a plastic version) would be out of the question anyway...

[GewoonWouter]

It's quite official now mate: you are utterly insane
What a great way to start 2021!
I'm just missing one small typical "Van Gils" thing in your latest couple of updates: a matchstick ^^

[Vladi]

Amazing!
Happy New Year

[EJFoeth]

Excellent! The bowsprits are actually wired together

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks guys!

I'm just missing one small typical "Van Gils" thing in your latest couple of updates: a matchstick ^^

I used it to light the fondue set last week...

The bowsprits are actually wired together

Yes, but only cosmetically. I did glue them first...

[Rui Matos]

Happy New Year Marijn and...

YOU'RE NOT HUMAN!
LOL

Enjoying this as much as all the other readers in wonder...
Keep safe, Keep marvelling us

Rui

[zs180]

Marijn, great progress with most spectacular results!
You are a real Master of your craft!!

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Hi Marijn,

I'm a very late subscriber to this WIP post. But I'm really baffled by the superb building of these 18th century warships. And I'm learning a lot too!

I went over all the 23 pages. Thanks for the detailed descriptions.

Maarten Sch�nfeld

[Frank Spahr]

This really is something else. And special. And toppest of notches. Wow.

Impressed doesn�t just begin to cover my feelings.

Frank

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks guys!


Next item on the workbench: topmasts.

These require less details, but their basic shape is a bit more complicated with wider parts both at the top and bottom, square and octagonal in section.

I started with the round part, turned in the Dremel and kept stable in a groove in a piece of MDF as I learned from Jim on this forum:


Yes, I�m also using that same piece of MDF as a workbench protection when drilling�

After using this file and a finer one, the surface was finished with a couple of increasingly finer grades of abrasive paper.



Now, the mast head was filed square, tapering to the top. For ease of working, I clamped the mast in the plastic clamp I showed some posts ago.


The hounds were next. First I filed them square, tapering to the bottom.


The corners were next filed down, so the final shape is octagonal.


The same was done to the part between the heel and the lower cap: first filed square, and then octagonal.


The heel was kept a little wider, almost square.


And the block at the lower end of the mast was again thinner and completely octagonal.


Finally, the mast could be cut of from the remaining piece of brass rod (which was 2,5mm diameter BTW).


A word of caution when turning things in a Dremel: this happened when I tried turning the mast AFTER squaring the lower parts of the mast. The lower parts had become too thin while the upper parts remained too heavy, causing the brass rod to bend en spin out of control.


If this breaks or flings out of the Dremel, this could be very harmful! So, at all times wear eye protection and keep a finger on the �off� switch.
After this incident, I stopped using my powerful classic Dremel tool for this task and started using my much less powerful Dremel Micro. Its lower power feels safer, and I have better control over the speed.

For installing the topmast, first a mast cap was fashioned from 1,5 mm plastic sheet and glued to the lower mast:


And the topmast was glued in place (after adding a bit of battle damage to it):


And finally some details were added: a cap shore, fid, and part of the cleats for the lower yard jeers (this will become the bow-shaped cleats after I add the rigging, Dafi ). Note how the gaps in the cap around the topmast (because of the oversized hole I drilled) were filled with Magic Sculp.


The topgallant mast more or less followed the same procedure (but starting from thinner rod). Turning the correct diameter and taper:


Next the heel and the part up to the upper cap were filed square:


The heel was left square, while the part above was now filed octagonal:


And the mast was cut from the remaining rod:


Because this mast is so thin, I didn�t try to file the hounds from the brass rod. Instead, I added a �blob� of Magic Sculp, that I sanded to shape after hardening. On the very top of the mast, a 1mm diameter disc (punched from 0,4mm plastic sheet) was glued.




Note that I managed to get my oversized match back from Aaron!

Now, the topmast trestletrees and crosstrees were made from plastic sheet.
I like gluing small flat items like these with a piece of paper on the workbench. If any glue is spilled, this is soaked up by the paper and evaporates quickly, preventing the plastic piece from being accidentally glued to the workbench. In this case, it was also helpful for lining everything up.


Now, the crosstrees were bent to their correct shape:


The assembly was glued to the topmast, and bolsters and copper wire (top of the shrouds) added:


Again, a cap was made (this time from 1mm sheet), and the topgallant mast was glued in place. The fid (2 tiny pieces of stretched sprue at both sides of the heel) and a strip of plastic sheet (mimicking a double sheave block) were added.


And the fore mast was finished:


The main topgallant mast was shot away, so that one was made from plastic:




And the mizzen was simpler yet: I modelled the topmast broken above the lower cap:


And the lower mast was broken too. The fighting top will be hanging over the stern.


The damage was simply carved and cut with a sharp scalpel.

With help from Dafi (thanks!), I added some more damage to the lower masts too:


And a family photo of all Vic�s masts:


Now on to the yards...

[EJFoeth]

Excellent!

[dafi]

What a treat!

XXXDAn